Category: Resettlement cities

Arizona: Refugees Not Working! Lutheran ‘Religious’ Charity Wants More and so does Gov!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Resettled refugees haven’t been doing so well as the Chinese Virus continues to wreck the US economy, but nevermind, Biden has promised 125,000 more impoverished third worlders for Americans to take care of in the coming year.

Every time you see a sob story like this one in the mainstream media you should be firing off a letter to the editor and asking:

Has [city or state, fill in the blank!] run out of poor, jobless, homeless, hungry Americans?

Even it you know the letter won’t be published you are educating the editor!

Arizona REPUBLICAN Governor Ducey ‘welcomes’ more refugees and opposed Trump’s efforts to give local communities a say in the matter. https://apnews.com/article/a1723b44a657c0ef9f6fb163fbb9a94b

Recognizing that Americans are hurting and should be taken care of first, President Trump further reduced the number of needy people the country could manage in 2021, but Biden/Harris are putting Americans LAST as they promise the largest influx of refugees America has seen in many decades and far in excess of those Obama admitted.

(And, with his past actions, Arizona’s Republican Governor Ducey has signaled his agreement with Biden!)

Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and the International Rescue Committee headed by Moneybags Miliband are putting out-of-work refugees FIRST—ahead of hurting Americans!

From Tuscon.com (hat tip: Tom):

Tucson agencies support of refugees challenging during pandemic

Since many recently-arrived refugees work in hard-hit industries such as hospitality, food service and transportation, they are among those greatly impacted by the pandemic, officials say

 

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will increase that cap to 125,000. Arizona resettlement agencies expect that cap to climb over time, allowing them to readjust and prepare for more arrivals in the future.

Nationally, Arizona is one of the highest states for resettlement, Prescott said. The IRC and Lutheran Social Services are among the organizations that provide a number of resources for newly arrived refugees, including job placement, enrolling children in school, finding and furnishing housing, and social services and community support.

[….]

Connie Phillips, CEO of Lutheran Social Services Southwest. https://socialwork.asu.edu/content/connie-phillips-eary

“When the pandemic first came last spring, it really threw our refugee clients into quite a crisis,” said Phillips of Lutheran Social Services. “Between the community and the staff’s ability to be innovative and to pivot, I think we were successful in providing for basic needs and responding to the immediate crisis.”

Since many recently arrived refugees work in hard-hit industries such as hospitality, food service and transportation, they are among those greatly impacted by the pandemic, Prescott said.

Refugees have lost their jobs, so have Americans!

More than 40% of the resettled refugees that Lutheran Social Services has assisted lost their jobs since the pandemic hit, Phillips said.

Arizona resettlement agencies addressed these issues by helping those who lost their jobs find new employment, as well as distributing food and supplies.

They also supplied refugees with information about economic relief programs for which they might qualify, such as rent and utility assistance through the city of Tucson.

Refugees’ living conditions mean they get more COVID says the IRC community engagement coordinator, and as the “most vulnerable people” need extra attention:

International Rescue Committee community engagement coordinator Stanford Prescott

The pandemic has revealed factors that contribute to greater positive rates among low-income communities, communities of color and immigrants — many of which apply to refugees. The nature of their work in essential industries coupled with living situations in which multiple generations reside in one home makes them more at risk, Prescott said.

To counter this, agencies have implemented measures to improve safety and testing in refugee communities.

Thanks to a grant from the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Pima County Health Department and the IRC have partnered to establish free local testing sites and ensure information about these sites is shared with the city’s refugees, Prescott said.

“This testing program is so important because if we can make sure that the most vulnerable people have access to testing, then we can keep those rates lower, which helps the community.”

What about poor vulnerable American kids?

Tucson schools have jumped in, providing essential equipment to refugee youth. Local resettlement agencies also work with families to help them navigate digital education.

There is more here.

And, just in case you think that Lutheran Social Services is being funded by the generosity of Christians passing the plate in church, see this page from a recent Form 990.

Taxpayers pay for approximately 85% of their annual income.

Less than $2 million of their $16.5 million revenue in 2018/19 came from private charity of some sort.  Be sure to see page 10 (Form 990 filed in early 2020) and note that most of their income went to salaries, employee benefits and office overhead.

There is even a quarter of a million in travel expenses!

They are still working as Government grants and contracts provide salaries for open borders political activists.

 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53fdfd76e4b085ab0d3939ba/t/5eb0a23645469323b801122d/1588634167903/2019+0630+FORM+990+PUBLIC+DISCLOSURE+COPY+%281%29FINAL.pdf

 

Australia’s Rejected Asylum Seekers Continue to Arrive in US, Get Inadequate Care

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

So says an advocate working to raise money for their needs.

Regular readers may remember that in 2016 Barack Obama (as he was wrapping up his 8 years as President) cut a deal with the then Australian Prime Minister to allow more than a thousand of Australia’s illegal aliens, who tried to break into the country by boat, to be brought to the US as legitimate refugees.

One group of the mostly single men are pictured en route to an American city.

 

Donald Trump knew instinctively that it was a dumb ‘deal,’ but went along with it anyway.  You could hardly call it a deal because a deal implies we get something in exchange.  News reports are mysteriously silent about what we got for taking the mostly Muslim men into our country.

If you want to catch up on the details, see my extensive file Australia Dumb Deal.

Here is an update of their arrivals in the US written by a journalist/advocate who leads a non-profit group to help take care of their needs through private charity—admirable if it is all private money.***  However, they are clearly advocates for more US taxpayer spending for so-called refugees that have nothing to do with Americans.

He fingers US refugee resettlement contractors for not doing their jobs!

As you read his story, remember that these ‘refugees’ tried to break into Australia by boat, were caught and detained under Australian law.  They chose to try to illegally enter Australia.  They should not have been our problem!

Ben Winsor (of Ads-Up) writing at The Guardian:

It’s hard to imagine how the US-Australia refugee deal could have been handled worse

Four years ago then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull struck a deal with then US president Barack Obama to transfer up to 1,250 of Australia’s unwanted refugees to the United States.

https://twitter.com/benbwinsor

The deal outlives both men’s leadership.

As we enter 2021 – despite US president Donald Trump’s condemnation of “this dumb deal” and a pandemic which has crippled the US resettlement system – the transfers continue. About 870 have arrived so far with more slated shortly.

After more than seven years in limbo, refugees will arrive with barely more than the clothes on their backs and they will be plunged into a collapsed economy, a rampant pandemic and a threadbare support system.  

The US refugee resettlement contractors are still rolling in large amounts of federal dollars, there should be no excuse for any lack of care for these ‘refugees.’

After touching down in Los Angeles, refugees are separated from each other and shuttled on to flights to cities from Phoenix to Philadelphia, San Antonio to Salt Lake City. Each will be handed a debt notice for their transfer flights – an absurdity that can total more than $11,000 for families with children.

US refugee policy does require the repayment of airfare ‘loans,’ but large amounts are never repaid.  The State Department does not want to publicly reveal how bad the repayment rate is.

Winsor continues:

The new arrivals are offered just 90 days of accommodation and basic support. Then they’re on their own.

Abandoned by refugee resettlement contractors!

In theory, resettlement agencies are supposed to help with job applications, work authorisation and medical assistance in this period. But in reality, many refugees tell us they’re all but abandoned.

[….]

All of it is forced on refugees by the Australian government’s seven-year failure to resolve a crisis of its own making.

Almost all these refugees arrived in the days and months after the government’s sudden 2013 announcement that refugees arriving by boat would be barred from resettling in Australia – a deterrent which appears to have succeeded but has left thousands in limbo.  

More than 40% of refugees tell Ads-Up they need assistance with medical care; another 40% request help with dental treatment. Inadequate healthcare on the islands means some arrive with easily treatable infections which have been left to fester undiagnosed.

[….]

Despite everything, most arrivals bear no ill will towards Australians.

They recall those who befriended them via Facebook when they were stranded, or who held vigils and protests. They are grateful to America, and even Trump, for giving them the chance to restart their lives.

More here.

*** I could not find a Form990 for Ads-Up.  They say that Ads-Up (USA) is a recognised not-for-profit charity under the umbrella of the Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs network. Hmmmm!

On Day One! Biden Administration will be between a “rock and a hard place” on immigrants/refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is, if he and Kamala make it to the White House.

They campaigned on reversing all of what they claim were draconian policies by the Trump White House to slow the flow across our southern border and to halt the influx of impoverished, possibly sick, low skilled workers, eg. refugees to America.

Will Biden be called a racist if he leaves many of Trump’s immigration policies in place? Not a chance!

Since the Chinese virus reared its ugly head in the spring, much of the Trump team’s actions were to slow the arrival of the COVID-19 virus potentially arriving with the migrants.

As a result Trump was called a racist and a white nationalist by the Biden-supporting media.

Now I am seeing one story after another about how the Harris/Biden administration might have to go very slowly to unravel Trump’s efforts to keep America safe and Americans working.

LOL!  I will be looking for the Leftist media to label Biden an evil racist when he will almost certainly not be able to fling open America’s gates for months or even years!

It wasn’t long after Election Steal Day in the weeks following November 3rd, that the stories began popping up about a new surge on the border.

Here is one from CBS:

U.S. agents apprehend 1,000 migrant children in 6 days as crossings along Mexican border rise

By the way, unaccompanied alien children are the responsibility of the US Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many paragraphs into the story we learn that oopsy(!), maybe Joe and Kamala cannot immediately reverse Trump’s immigration control strategies, especially as Americans will be furious if it is done while the virus rages on.

Mr. Biden’s team has also pledged to review the expulsions policy to ensure border-crossers “have the ability to submit their asylum claims.”

https://twitter.com/seleeandrew

Andrew Selee, president of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, said ending the “Remain in Mexico” program and the expulsions too quickly could lead to a surge in border crossings.

He suggested the incoming Biden administration could end Remain-in-Mexico but temporarily retain the expulsion policy, a scenario that could be complicated by legal challenges and reporting that shows public health officials were pressured by the White House to authorize the expulsions.

Selee said an influx in border arrests could hurt chances of a divided Congress passing immigration legislation, including one that provides a pathway to U.S. citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries. Republicans lawmakers blamed the DACA program for a surge in border apprehensions of Central American children in 2014, even though the policy, established in 2012, did not benefit new arrivals.

Before completely ending Mr. Trump’s policies, Selee said the incoming Biden administration should deploy more asylum officers, surge resources to the border and expand case management programs that allow migrants to complete their U.S. immigration proceedings outside of detention centers. Otherwise, he added, a sharp increase in unauthorized migration could leave the U.S. government unprepared, worsen conditions in temporary migrant holding facilities and lead to more draconian enforcement policies.

“You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: Either you start releasing people in the general population or you hold them in the middle of a pandemic,” Selee said. 

“If you try to be the anti-Trump on day one, you will end up acting like Trump in the end,” he added. “If you try and throw out everything Trump has done on day one, without having an alternative in place, you’ll end up doing the same things Trump did.”

Read it all here.

And, here (read it yourself) is a more recent warning about the ‘kids’ rushing the border.  From USA Today:

Thousands of unaccompanied minors arrive at US-Mexico border as Border Patrol grapples with COVID-19 deaths

Lowering expectations?

And, a little nugget in this news from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette indicates that the Refugee Resettlement Industry has begun to tamp down expectations for a huge jump in new refugees being flown into your towns and cities anytime soon.

Biden campaigned on restoring the flow of refugees into the country from Trump’s less than 20,000 annual refugee admissions to a whopping 125,000 in year one he said!

Pittsburgh 2017 anti-Trump rally. Will they protest if Biden doesn’t move fast enough to reverse Trump’s policies?  Not a chance.

Pittsburgh-area agencies await word on Biden’s refugee plan

Deep into this story we have this news that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is telling its satellite offices that the flood isn’t coming right away.

While the Biden team hasn’t detailed its plans, Ms. Aizenman has heard speculation from her agency’s national affiliate that there might be some increases later in 2021, with a higher ceiling in 2022.

But wait! That is not what we heard BEFORE November 3rd.

(Ms. Aizenman is the director of refugee and immigrant services at Jewish Family and Community Services which is a subcontractor of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)).

We had a hint that increases in refugee numbers might not be coming here the other day.

If Biden and Harris (or Harris and someone else!) are installed in the White House, we will be watching! I know it is serious, but I anticipate being amused as they squirm to get out from between a rock and a hard place.

Clever America Firsters will have to figure out how to keep up the pressure on that rock.

Michigan: Pakistani Hotel Owner Alleges City Picked on Him for Housing Syrian Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The point you should take away from this story is that in addition to new refugees being illegally housed (newly arriving refugees are required to be placed in their own apartments or homes upon arrival, not placed in hotel rooms) is that the Michigan Lutheran refugee resettlement agency was working with the Muslim hotel owner who the city says was already in violation of fire and other safety codes. 

Formerly Lutheran Social Services of Michigan

The Lutheran resettlement agency, Samaritas, is a subcontractor to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service I wrote about yesterday. Check out that post and see the salaries you pay!

For newcomers to RRW, there are nine federal resettlement agencies largely funded by you, the taxpayers, who work for the US State Department.

Each of those has many subcontractors.  Your money flows through the nine down to hundreds of smaller organizations (like this Michigan subcontractor) making it very confusing for concerned citizens to know who it is that is changing their communities and it makes it almost impossible to follow the money.

(See LIRS other subcontractors below.)

From Detroit Free Press:

(emphasis below is mine)

Sterling Heights hotel in dispute with city alleges anti-Muslim, anti-refugee bias

The owner of a Sterling Heights hotel who is Muslim and of Pakistani descent alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that city officials targeted and drove him out of business because of his faith and ethnicity and because he had housed about 200 Syrian refugees.

But on the same day, a Macomb County judge ruled against the hotel in a separate lawsuit that had been filed by city against the hotel, agreeing with the city that the hotel had failed to meet safety regulations.

Asad Malik, the owner of Wyndham Garden on 15 Mile and Van Dyke and president of the Pakistani Association of America, says in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Detroit that after he started housing Syrian refugees in 2016, the city started to slap him with citations for violations of fire codes that he said other hotels with similar problems were not receiving. The hotel closed in September.

Malik purchased the hotel in 2014. He is an active member of the Muslim community in metro Detroit as a leader with the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit in Rochester Hills and meets with elected officials who have visited the mosque over the years.

The hotel was “opening her arms to refugees escaping from their war torn country,” his attorney Shereef Akeel, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Sterling Hotels, told the Free Press. “The last thing you would think is then one of our own cites shutting the door on them. And now, my client has had to pay dearly for their act of generosity.”

The hotel started taking in Syrian refugees in November 2016 [during the big Obama flood of refugees—ed] working with Samaritas, formerly known as Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, which helps resettle refugees.

Malik said he then received an email from the Sterling Heights city manager asking him: “Are there any Syrian refugees being housed at the Wyndham? A resident is alleging such at our council meeting.”

The targeted harassment started after that….

Keep reading to learn more about the complaint.  The fallback position for a certain group of people is to cry DISCRIMINATION!

So where else is LIRS working to change America by changing the people?

This is something I need to do every time I write about a resettlement agency funded by you, in this case Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (the mothership) that passes its case loads to subcontractors like Samaritis.

Here is where you can find out if a refugee agency in your city is affiliated with LIRS.

Below is a screenshot of the full list of subcontractors.  Note how some have dropped the word “Lutheran” from their names.

Houston: Poor Refugees/Immigrants Get Chinese Virus While Rich Whites Don’t

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well, that is what the New York Times wants you to believe.

I’m not interested enough to search the data, but this story from Houston is a familiar one as the legacy media wants you to believe that the Chinese virus can find the poor and downtrodden while the rich are spared.

You know it isn’t true and as a matter of fact, as my continuous reporting on refugee camps worldwide has demonstrated, packing hundreds of thousands of unwashed people into squalid living conditions hasn’t hastened the spread of the virus.

You can read the story yourself, but I was interested in a bit at the end about an unhappy Burundian refugee and wondered how Burundians are now flowing to America.  And, why on earth we are still bringing them!

https://www.americansecurityproject.org/why-burundis-election-crisis-matters-to-the-united-states-and-the-world/

 

Remember it was only ten days ago that I reported that a Burundian refugee in Washington State was supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement.

NYT story posted at the Baltimore Sun:

The virus found a crowded Houston neighborhood, sparing one nearby

At an African market in another part of the neighborhood, Anaclet Rukata said that he had friends who had become ill but that he worried less about the virus than about his uncertain future.

A 39-year-old refugee from Burundi, he lost his job with a catering company in the Chevron headquarters when the pandemic caused the first wave of closures. His 55-year-old mother, also a refugee, lost her job too, he said.

That day, he was working behind the counter as a favor to a friend who owns the market. “He doesn’t make enough money to pay me,” Rukata said.

And he had just received word by email that his unemployment benefits would be cut off at the end of the month.

Can’t Mr. Rukata’s resettlement agency pony-up some funds to help him survive?

Does it make any sense to bring one more impoverished, low skilled refugee to live in America when so many Americans are unemployed and suffering? NO!

So, in summary, we are mucking around in Africa, in tiny Burundi, which has a corrupt leader and the consequent unrest which since 2015 has caused hundreds of thousands to flee the country to neighboring countries.

Those countries don’t want them and somehow it becomes our responsibility to deposit them in poor neighborhoods in America where they catch the COVID, complain, and jump on the BLM bandwagon. Does any of that make sense?

I just checked the data and we admitted 2,591 Burundians to the US since FY2015 (through today).  2,591 most likely unemployed and BLM agitators in the making!